“I Don’t Trust You” – The Dance of Trust in Conflict Resolution

"Trust in Allah, but tie your camel." - Muslim Proverb

Those of us in the dispute resolution field often talk about the resolution and management of conflict as a self-evident good.  We continually refine our approaches and improve our skills in order to better help our parties work through conflict and find solutions.  But one key element of the work that we do is often overlooked by conflict practitioners, or undervalued in terms of importance to the process: the element of trust. 

Trust permeates almost every aspect of multiparty conflict resolution.  There's the trust that the participants have in the process design, the trust they have in each other to participate in good faith, and the trust they have in institutions to abide by agreed-upon outcomes.  There's also the delicate balance of trust the parties maintain regarding the facilitators tasked with managing the process -- which may fluctuate over time, sometimes very rapidly and unpredictably.

Often times what brings deadlocked parties to conflict resolution in the first place is a lack of trust.  But trust-building in isolation does not always resolve intractable disputes.  True, solutions can be found to conflicts that do not depend upon the restoration of trust, or that necessarily restore any trust between the parties-- in some cases, that may be adequate.  Sometimes solutions need to have progressive trust-building elements integrated into them, such as the old "trust but verify" adage from the 1980s.  Considering the centrality of trust to multiparty dispute resolution, and the complexity of the topic, it definitely deserves greater attention from the EPP/ECR field.
 
In this session, Carolyn Penny (Director of UC Davis Extension’s Business&Management as well as Common Ground: Center for Cooperative Solutions), Bob Jones (Director of the FCRC Consensus Center, Florida State University) and Colin Rule (Director of Online Dispute Resolution for eBay and PayPal) will discuss some of the challenges of working with trust, such as: how to define trust, how to determine when it's there and when it's not through signalling behavior, and learnings about trust drawn from business, game theory, online dispute resolution, and neuroscience.

Some of the topics to be discussed:
• What is the difference between trust and safety?
• What happens in the brain when we trust someone?
• What characteristics can be built into a decision-making process to enhance trust?
• How does trust impact speed?  How does speed impact trust?

They will also talk about real world examples of multiparty disputes where trust was a major factor in the outcomes achieved, and some of the best practices associated with managing and preserving trust.  They will also address how trust is affected by online communication, and ways technology can support the maintenance and strengthening of trust in multiparty working groups.

The session will be participatory and fast moving, with thought-provoking exercises and in-depth scenarios drawn from decades of experience.  Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the dynamics of trust – and a stronger sense of practical steps to enhance the development of trust.